Hurricanes stumble at home, can’t close out Islanders in Game 5 of NHL playoff series

Amid all the fans’ signs at rinkside Tuesday at PNC Arena, many asking for a puck as a keepsake, there was one with another request: “1 More Win!”

One more win would have won the Stanley Cup playoff series for the Carolina Hurricanes, but the New York Islanders would have none of it, keeping their season alive. No handshake line this night.

The Islanders converted Canes turnovers into goals and got a strong game in net from goalie Ilya Sorokin for a 3-2 victory that will take the first-round series back to Long Island for a Game 6 on Friday with the Canes leading 3-2.

Pierre Engvall and Mathew Barzal scored after Canes turnovers, and Brock Nelson after the Canes’ Sebastian Aho took a puck in the face.

Aho, bloodied, was stitched up, returned and scored in the third period to pull the Canes within 3-2. Paul Stastny had the Canes’ first goal, on a second-period redirection.

The Islanders won a timely coach’s challenge in the first period when an apparent Stefan Noesen power-play goal was disallowed when it was ruled Noesen was offside entering the zone.

Takeaways from Game 5

▪ One could sense everyone in PNC Arena flinch and then grimace in the second period when Aho was smacked in the face by a shot.

Pierre Engvall’s shot was wide right of the net and Aho couldn’t dodge the puck as Brock Nelson collected it and quickly scored for a 2-0 lead. Aho skated to the bench, head down and mouth bleeding, and was taken to the locker room for treatment.

▪ Something to remember in Game 6: The team scoring first has won each of the first five games.

▪ The fourth line might have been the Canes’ best this game. Good for the fourth line but the Canes needed more from others and didn’t get it.

▪ It was a play the Canes’ two best D-men have made unerringly so many times this season: Brent Burns passing to Jaccob Slavin and Slavin clearing the puck from the zone.

But not Tuesday. Slavin took a swipe at the puck along the wall, didn’t get it out of the zone and the Islanders made it 1-0 as Engvall scored. A rare error but a costly error for Canes.

▪ The building was rumbling in the first when Noesen whipped the puck past Sorokin. Aho made the pass through the crease, Noesen was open on the backdoor for the shot and the score was tied. Then it wasn’t after the coach;s challenge.

▪ The building was really rumbling after the Paul Stastny redirection for Carolina that made it a 2-1 game, Jalen Chatfield winged one in from the right point and Stastny and Derek Stepan were both in front of the crease, Stastny getting his stick on the puck.

▪ Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour has said it often, in the regular season and in the playoffs: the Islanders are opportunistic, waiting for teams to make mistakes and making them costly.

Martin Necas had a chance to chip the puck into the Isles zone but had the puck knocked away from behind by Bo Horvat. It was suddenly a 2-on-1 rush for New York and Barzal got the goal that zapped the energy out of the arena.

Necas has been dangerous for the Canes with open ice this season but made a bad decision.

Injuries not serious at morning skate

Can a morning skate be worrisome?

It almost seemed that way Tuesday morning as the Carolina Hurricanes held their pregame skate at PNC Arena before Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series against the New York Islanders.

Forward Jack Drury did not come out for the skate. Later, defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere left it in some discomfort. Then, defenseman Jalen Chatfield left the ice in discomfort. That’s the Canes’ third D pair.

Both players were in the lineup Tuesday night, though, after taking warmups alongside spare defender Dylan Coughlan.

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said earlier in the day Drury would not play in Game 5. He was knocked out of Game 4 on Sunday after a hit from the Isles’ Ryan Pulock that sent Drury face-first into the glass.

Brind’Amour said Drury is not concussed but was “not able to go.” He said Gostisbehere should be fine and ready for the game. Chatfield, who later returned to the skate, said he was OK.

“Obviously we’re banged up pretty good,” Brind’Amour said. “At this point, what’s another one, almost? But fortunately they’ll be all right.”

One player returning is goalie Frederik Andersen. The goalie will be available and serve as the backup in Game 5 for Antti Raanta, who will make his fifth straight start.

MacEachern on Aho line

With Drury out, Mackenzie MacEahern will stay on Sebastian Aho’s line at left wing opposite Seth Jarvis. MacEachern played a starring role Sunday in the Canes’ 5-2 victory with a goal and assist and now will play his first game at PNC Arena.

“Just going out today (for the skate) and seeing all the white towels in the seats, you can feel the excitement building already,” MacEachern said.

Brind’Amour says the playoffs probably don’t “scare” MacEachern, who was called up last week from Chicago after the Wolves’ AHL season ended. MacEachern did get in five playoff games with the St. Louis Blues in 2020 before his first appearance with the Canes on Sunday.

“Big body, can play,” Brind’Amour said of the forward. “This type of game is probably more suited for him than a regular-season game. It was a nice story the other day and hopefully it can continue.”

MacEachern, who per ESPN became only the second non-rookie in NHL history to score a playoff goal while making his debut with his team, joining the Buffalo Sabres’ Bob Hess in 1981, has taken over Andrei Svechnikov’s stall in the Canes’ locker room at PNC Arena. Svechnikov is out with a knee injury but continues to go through rehab work at PNC Arena and is around the room.

”It’s nice to have a guy like that be able to step in and step up and play in a really big game, in a pivotal moment in the series and contribute,” Jarvis said. “It’s awesome. It’s a tribute to him as a player, to be able to come in here with zero nerves and be a professional and just do his job.”

The other lines Tuesday morning had Jesperi Kotkaniemi centering Jordan Martinook and Martin Necas, Jordan Staal centering Stefan Noesen and Jesper Fast, and Paul Stastny at center with Derek Stepan and Jesse Puljujarvi. The D pairs remained the same.

Brind’Amour flip-flopped Martinook and Noesen before Game 4.

On a tear

Raanta was disappointed to discover Tuesday morning that the tear in the back of his red goalie pants — which he famously split making a save in Game 4 — had already been repaired by the Hurricanes’ crack equipment staff, which wasn’t going to let that slide.

“I’m a little pissed,” Raanta joked. “There was a lot more mobility.”